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North Carolina native Roberta Flack has ALS, can no longer sing

Roberta Flack on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards on January 26, 2020, where she was given a lifetime achievement award by the Academy.
Rich Fury
/
Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Roberta Flack on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards on January 26, 2020, where she was given a lifetime achievement award by the Academy.

A representative for North Carolina Native Roberta Flack has announced that the legendary musician has ALS, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and can no longer sing.

Flack’s manager Suzanne Koga said in a release Monday that the progressive disease “has made it impossible to sing and not easy to speak" but will not “silence this icon.”

The announcement of the diagnosis comes ahead of the premiere of “Roberta,” a feature-length documentary debuting Thursday at the DOC-NYC film festival.

The release says that the singer plans to stay active in her musical and creative pursuits.

Flack was born in Black Mountain, near Asheville - in 1937.

Kelly Batchelor hails from the small crossroads community of Cabin in Duplin County in Eastern North Carolina. Since 1989 Kelly has been actively employed in radio.